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Saturday, February 23, 2019

AT THE MOVIES ~ ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

ALITA—BATTLE ANGEL

In the 26th
century, Dr. Dyson Ido is Iron City’s best doctor and renowned for his ability
to rebuild people by meshing them with improvised machined parts savaged from scrap
yards. Discovering the remains of an outdated female cyborg with signs of brain
activity, Ido rebuilds her with a body designed for his deceased daughter. He
names the cyborg Alita when it turns out she has no memory of who she is or
where she’s from. When Dr. Ido realizes the young woman in the salvaged cyborg has
an extraordinary past and the promise of an even more extraordinary, if violent
(very violent) future for which she is unprepared complications ensue.

Alita—Battle Angel
reminds me in many ways of Ready Player
One. Both films brilliantly present a complex story in a way understandable
to neophytes, but multifaceted enough to still engage those intimately familiar
with the world being presented. Where Ready
Player One accomplished this feat under the genius directorial guidance of
Stephen Spielberg, Alita—Battle Angel
succeeds through the genius writing and producing skills of the equally gifted
James Cameron.

A cyberpunk
epic, Alita is based on a popular dystopian
manga (stylized Japanese graphic novels) by Yukito Kishiro, which is a mash-up
of Rollerball, Robotech, and Transformers. What makes Alita different and
worthy of attention is it has a heart, a girl warrior—the titular Alita—who is
all human despite her almost entirely cyborg body.

The film effortlessly
captures this human element along with pitch-perfect pacing, fantastic motion capture
techniques, outstanding visual effects that go beyond the high-tech CGI,
seamlessly choreographed action, a clicked in soundtrack, a solid story,
committed acting by Rosa Salazar as Alita and Christopher Waltz as her father
figure Dr. Ido, and inspired direction on the part of Robert Rodriquez.

Overall, Alita—Battle Angel is gorgeous, entertaining,
and a special effects spectacle. Be prepared to let your popcorn get cold when
you get caught up in the story despite never having read a magna in order to understand
why Alita’s eyes are so stylized and big.